Mårkær Monastery ( da, Mårkær Kloster) was an establishment of the

Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony The Hospital Brothers of Saint Anthony, Order of Saint Anthony or Canons Regular of Saint Anthony of Vienne (''Canonici Regulares Sancti Antonii'', or CRSAnt), also Antonines or Antonites, were a Roman Catholic congregation founded in c. 1095, wit ...

, a religious order. It was located at Mårkær,

Angeln Anglia ( German and Low German: ''Angeln''; Danish and South Jutlandic: ''Angel''; ang, Engla land) is a small peninsula on the eastern coast of Jutland (the Cimbric Peninsula). Jutland consists of the mainland of Denmark and the northern ...

Southern Schleswig Southern Schleswig (german: Südschleswig or ', da, Sydslesvig; frr, Söödslaswik) is the southern half of the former Duchy of Schleswig in Germany on the Jutland Peninsula. The geographical area today covers the large area between the Eider ...

. Mårkær is now within Germany, under the name of Mohrkirch. Nevertheless, the monastery was throughout its existence within the

Duchy of Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig ( da, Hertugdømmet Slesvig; german: Herzogtum Schleswig; nds, Hartogdom Sleswig; frr, Härtochduum Slaswik) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km ...

, a hereditary possession of the Danish crown, and was therefore Danish not German. Mårkær Monastery was founded in 1391, as a daughter monastery of , in

Kloster Tempzin Kloster Tempzin is a municipality in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country i ...

Duchy of Mecklenburg The Duchy of Mecklenburg was a duchy within the Holy Roman Empire, located in the region of Mecklenburg. It existed during the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period, from 1471 to 1520, as well as 1695 to 1701. Its capital was Schwerin. ...

. It was the first such establishment by the Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony in any of the Nordic countries. They were a medical order, who specialised in treating sufferers from the condition called St. Anthony's Fire (now generally thought to be

ergotism Ergotism (pron. ) is the effect of long-term ergot poisoning, traditionally due to the ingestion of the alkaloids produced by the '' Claviceps purpurea'' fungus—from the Latin "club" or clavus "nail" and for "head", i.e. the purple club-hea ...

). In 1470,

King Christian I of Denmark Christian I (February 1426 – 21 May 1481) was a Scandinavian monarch under the Kalmar Union. He was king of Denmark (1448–1481), Norway (1450–1481) and Sweden (1457–1464). From 1460 to 1481, he was also duke of Schleswig (within ...

(1426-1481) gave the Church of the Virgin Mary in

Præstø Præstø () is a town with a population of 3,857 (1 January 2022) in Vordingborg Municipality in Region Sjælland on the east coast of the island of Zealand (''Sjælland''). The islands of '' Maderne'', ''Storeholm'', and ''Lilleholm'' are part ...

to Mårkær Monastery. In 1472, the monks established a daughter monastery of their own in Præstø. His queen,

Dorothea Dorothea (also spelled Dorothée, Dorotea or other variants) is a female given name from Greek (Dōrothéa) meaning "God's Gift". It may refer to: People * Dorothea Binz (1920–1947), German concentration camp officer executed for war cr ...

(1430/1431-1495), bequeathed 300 gulden to Mårkær Monastery. The monastery continued to prosper. In 1535, the monastery was dissolved as a consequence of the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and i ...

. Its property passed to the Duke of Schleswig. The last surviving buildings of the monastery at Mårkær were demolished in 1780, and no trace or visual representation of them has survived. To this day, the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in it ...

of Mårkær/Mohrkirch includes the blue cross of the Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony.

References

Religious buildings and structures completed in 1391 Former Christian monasteries in Germany Monasteries in Schleswig-Holstein {{Denmark-hist-stub